


Rusty's Side

by sbuggbot



Category: SteamWorld Dig (Video Game)
Genre: Dig 2 Spoilers, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Post-Dig 2, Rusty's a bit chattier than normal but IDK how else to do it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 03:56:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13562289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbuggbot/pseuds/sbuggbot
Summary: [DIG 2 SPOILERS] After finding (and rescuing) her best friend, Dorothy has a few questions for him.





	Rusty's Side

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously, this has spoilers for the ending of SteamWorld Dig 2, so beware.
> 
> Anyway, Rusty's side of what had happened between the two Dig games interested me, so I wrote a fic a few months ago about it, then left it sitting on my Google drive.

The rocket sped away from the Earth as massive cracks formed across its landscape. It and its steam-driven passengers barely escaped in time. Dorothy watched through the small porthole as the cracks became chasms, and the chasms became canyons. She felt her friend shift slightly next to her so he could get a better view as well. They both watched as one final shockwave broke the planet apart. Large shards of the crust spread outwards, revealing the core of the planet.

The core of the earth was blinding. Dorothy, desperate to see more of what was happening, squinted and tried to block the core out with her arm. No dice. She gave up and turned away from the porthole. Her friend had slumped against his seat already. He still seemed tired, but at least he could hold himself upright now. The jolt from the rocket taking off knocked him out of his seat earlier.

“Dot?” he asked.

“Yeah, Rusty?”

“Thank you.” He got a confused look in return. “For saving me back there?”

Dorothy looked away. “Thank Fen. We’d both be stuck down there if it wasn’t for them.”

“You could’ve left me behind.”

“Now Rusty, do you really think I would’ve forgiven myself if I left you for scrap metal down there? You couldn't even lift your head!” She looked right at Rusty’s eyes as she said that. (Since when were they blue?) “Even if I did save myself, the tubes could've blocked up and I'd be stuck down there anyway.”

“‘m sorry for bringing it up,” Rusty mumbled. There was a pause. “I guess--I guess that while I was strapped into that mech, I got used to the idea that I’d die down there. Either from all my power being drained, or the roof caving in on me, and-" Rusty was shaking. "Even when you defeated that shiner and destroyed her mech, I figured I’d just slow you down and we’d both die in there.”

"Rusty..." Dorothy moved over and hugged him. “I wouldn’t have gone through all I did and then leave you behind. I need you to know that.” Once Rusty calmed down, she let go of him and looked back out the porthole. The ship was far enough out she could see the stars. “I just wish I had had enough time to go back for Fen.”

Another pause; this one lasted long enough to become slightly awkward. While Rusty was usually not one to talk much and didn’t mind long pauses even if it made others uncomfortable, he liked Dorothy. “I suppose you have questions, don’t you?”

“Yeah…” Dorothy turned to face Rusty abruptly. “Why did you build those doomsday devices?”

Rusty recoiled slightly and froze. Partly because of the abrupt shift in Dorothy’s tone, and partly because he wasn’t expecting that question. He expected something about his eyes changing color or the fact his furnace was gone. “Doomsday devices?” he echoed.

“Yes, the four you built around El Machino? The weird ones with Vectron and steam parts?”

“Oh, those. Those weren’t doomsday devices, those were to draw power from the reactor that shiner built.”

“But they caused earthquakes and they were unstable…”

“They weren’t s’posed to be permanent. I put them together in a hurry to try to weaken that reactor so I could destroy it without being blown up myself. I figured I could take apart my devices once I was done with them.”

“What went wrong?”

“The shiners saw me coming. I managed to defeat a few of them, but eventually, they overpowered me and trapped me. Then their leader found out about my devices and tried to overclock her reactor in response to mine, and when that wasn’t enough...”

“...Rosie tricked me into destroying your devices.” Dorothy finished.

Rusty nodded. “I’m guessing that the power surges from my devices being shut off made Rosie’s reactor more unstable than it was.”

“Oh, scrap,” Dorothy whispered. “And Fen and I thought you were actually trying to destroy the planet the whole time...”

“The doom cult didn’t help, did it?”

“How’d you know about that?”

“I found their western temple while I was looking for places to hide devices. I tried telling them what I was actually doing, but they misunderstood me completely and I didn’t bother trying to correct them.” Rusty looked amused. “They were excited to have a deity again and let me have what I wanted.”

“Did you tell them to get Fen from down in Vectron?” Dorothy asked. “Because that’s how I found them; stuck in the Eastern Temple.”

“I didn’t even know Fen existed until you two found me. I still don’t really know who they were; just that you were pretty close.”

“Fen was some sort of Vectron sprite. Actually, more like a fenlight. Anyway, I found Fen when I fell into the eastern temple after an earthquake. They were in this sort of totem that could zap cultists. After I destroyed it, Fen traveled with me. They had this map that was great for helping me get around the mines."

“Seemed pretty nice to me.”

“Actually, Fen was a huge brat at first, wanting to destroy everything. At the time, I didn’t want anything to do with them. They insisted on riding in my furnace."

"And you just let them?" Poking around in other bots' furnaces was generally considered rather rude.

"I was lost in there, and my light was busted from the fall. I didn't have much of an option," Dorothy said. "But as we traveled together, Fen became nicer, and I got attached to the little sprite. They kept their destructive streak until the end, though. Fen loved blowing stuff up. Destroying your devices was the highlight of their day.”

“Hmph.”

“I’m just saying,” Dorothy said.

“Anything else?”

“Weren’t your eyes green? Since when were they blue?”

“I think they turned blue after I destroyed Vectron,” Rusty said, “and I upgraded myself with this power core. I didn’t notice right away and when I saw how I’d changed, I was so rattled that I ran away from Tumbleton.”

“Most of the others thought you’d died back there when we couldn’t find you and Vectron was just rubble.”

“I’m sorry, Dot. I would’ve told you what happened, but I couldn't face the rest of town yet. I figure I would've calmed down and gone back soon, but I started feeling earthquakes. Something felt _wrong_ about them, and I had to find out why.”

“The bots in El Machino said you went down into the mines and didn’t come back up once.”

“I didn’t see any point. I wasn’t there to mine and I just used the underground cave systems to get around. And the tubes, until they clogged up at least.”

“Oh. Did you see that forest down there?”

“I wouldn’t have called it a forest, but there was an overgrown branch of Archaea that had pipes running through it. I hid a device in there, way at the bottom.”

Dorothy facepalmed. “Oh, right. Duh. Thank you for explaining everything to me.”

Both turned back to the window to look out at the stars. There were so many more out here, even to a couple of small-town bots.

"What will we do now?"


End file.
